Constitutional History in the Czech Republic 2000–2015

This paper focuses on the topic of research in constitutional history in the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 21st century, specifically in the period 2000–2015. The paper charts Czech historians’ interest in constitutional (legal) history in the region of the modern Czech Republic (including some overlaps concerning constitutional law in Central Europe) throughout the whole history of the Czech state. It is obvious that constitutional history (as well as other areas of historical research) of modern times, especially of the 19th and 20th centuries, has recently become a topic for greater discussion among scholars. However, the major editions are still more connected with older Czech history. The topic of legal history is studied at law faculties, at faculties of arts and philosophy, and at some institutes of The Czech Academy of Sciences (Institute of State and Law of the CAS, the Masaryk Institute, and the Archives of the CAS). The current paper will also treat with the professional publications (i.a. the magazine “Právněhistorické studie”), major studies, and important figures (i.a. Karel Malý, Pavel Krafl, Jiří Přibáň, Ladislav Soukup, Karolina Adamová, Jan Kuklík, Aleš Gerloch). Finally, yet importantly, the paper will point out that the “founding fathers” of the constitutional history of the 19th century (Jaromír Čelakovský and Josef Kalousek) have attracted modern scholars’ attention as well as the critical perception of legal aspects of globalisation.